{"references": ["Coman, M. 2009. Manual de jurnalism. Tehnici fundamentale de redactare. Ia\u015fi: Polirom. Coman, M. 2016. Introducere \u00een sistemul mass-media. Ia\u015fi: Polirom. Ellul, J. 1973. Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitude. New York: Vintage Books. Eurostat, European Commission, 2018, \"Flash Eurobarometer 464: Fake news and disinformation online. April 2018\" pp. 1-48, retrievable from: https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index. cfm/Survey/getSurveyDetail/instruments /FLASH/yearFrom/1974/yearTo/2018/surveyKy/2183. Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language (1998), retrievable from: https://dexonline.ro/ Keyes, R. 2004. The Post-Truth Era. Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life. New York: St. Martin's Press. Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Schulz, A., Simge, A., Kleis N. R. 2020 \"Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020\", Reuters Institute, retrievable from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-\u00ad\u2010 06/DNR_2020_FINAL.pdf Radu, R. N. 2021 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, retrievable from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2021/romania The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: United Nations, \"Declara\u021bia Universal\u0103 a Drepturilor Omului\", Rezolu\u021bia 217 A (III) a Adun\u0103rii Generale a Organiza\u021biei Na\u021biunilor Unite din 10 decembrie 1948 de la Paris, Fran\u021ba, retrievable from: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/rum.pdf Valkenburg, P. M., Semetko, H. A., De Vreese, C. H. 1999. \"The Effects of Newsframes on Readers. Thoughts and Recall\". In: Communication Research 26. New York: Sage Publications, pp. 550- 569. Vl\u0103du\u021bescu, \u0218. 2006. Comunicare jurnalistic\u0103 negativ\u0103. (Convic\u021biune \u0219i persuasiune. Eseu de hermeneutic\u0103 mediatic\u0103). Bucure\u0219ti: Editura Academiei Rom\u00e2ne. Vilmer, J.-B. et al. 2018. Information Manipulation: A Challenge for Our Democracies, Paris. The Policy Planning Staff (CAPS, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs), The Institute forStrategic Research (IRSEM, Ministry for the Armed Forces). Wahl-Jorgensen, K., Hanitzsch, Th. (eds). 2008. The Handbook of Journalism Studies. Taylor & Francis e-Library."]}

The phenomenon of misinformation by means of fake online news is an up-to-the-minute topic, important for the field of communication sciences, now more than ever in the spotlight. This article describes the phenomenon of “fake news” and several important concepts in the field such as alternative media, altright media and alt-fact, gatekeeping and gatewatching, post-truth politics and fact-checking, fake news detection and automated deception detection. Starting from the premise that the study of misinformation, manipulation, propaganda and online fake news is even more important when looked at as part of a crisis (understood as a time of turmoil and confusion), we will turn our attention to the crisis affecting people’s trust in the traditional media, as well as to the dangers of overconfidence in the online media, by relying on a case study (the representation of fake news on Romanian online media platforms).